Shadow of Flame

by Caitlyn McFarland

  “Kai?”

  Five minutes ago, all she’d wanted was to crawl into his bed, be comforted by his warmth. Now all she could think of was him with Morwenna. Touching Morwenna the way he’d touched her. But more. Because he’d slept with Morwenna, hadn’t he? Tall, beautiful, deadly Morwenna.

  Rhys leaned against the door frame. “How is she?”

  For an absurd, violent moment, Kai thought he was asking about Morwenna. But no, he meant Juli. “Sleeping. Ashem is with her.”

  Why did it have to be Morwenna?

  “How are you?” His voice. Stupid, soft, sexy voice.

  “Fine.” She turned to her room.

  “Kai?”

  “Hm?”

  “I wondered—I thought... Would you like to come in?”

  Yes. A million times yes. Everything was a mess, but no matter what Morwenna said, Rhys was sworn to her. Pledged to her. Tonight, she decided, he was asking to share his bed with her.

  Kai wavered, still hurt. But Rhys hadn’t actually done anything wrong. Lame, but not wrong. “I’ll be in in a minute.”

  He nodded. Kai changed into her pajamas then padded softly into Rhys’s bedroom. He was already in bed, reading some book handwritten in a language Kai didn’t recognize. She closed the door and climbed into bed.

  “Rhys?”

  He closed the book. She loved the intensity of his eyes. Loved the way his head tilted in silent question.

  “You slept with Morwenna.”

  He exhaled and rubbed his forehead. “Sunder me.”

  “Yeah.”

  He set the book aside. “Iain had died. She was inconsolable for months. She came to me looking for comfort. I...was also upset. We comforted each other. I didn’t want to hurt either of you.”

  “I know.” Kai inhaled, then let it out long and slow, debating whether to tell him the next part. In the end, though, she was too tired to keep the hurt to herself. “She called me a breeding bitch. Said there were people in Eryri who would rather see me in a cell than see me as queen.”

  He went very still. Kai could sense heat gathering around him, a maelstrom of barely contained energy. He lay down next to her and touched her cheek. The scent of wind and woodsmoke surrounded her, comforting.

  “You are queen.” His fingers were gentle, but his voice grated. “I’ve told you, I would never—I can’t—” He withdrew his hand and balled his fingers into a fist. “I’ll kill anyone who tries.”

  A crooked smile curved her lips. His anger was more comforting than his words. “I still believe you.” Kai heaved a sigh. “She said someone like me could never be a queen. She’s got a point. I’m just some doofy climber girl from Rifle. I haven’t even finished college and I’m supposed to be in charge of dragons that have hundreds of times my experience?” Kai’s throat closed. “Maybe you should just be king by yourself.”

  He pulled her close, so that her head was tucked up under his chin and her arms were trapped against his chest. Some people might have found it restrictive. Maybe she would have, once. Instead, she felt treasured.

  “You’re compassionate, intelligent and selfless. You’ve led a sheltered life, but there are worse places to start. Everything I know, I learned. So can you, if you’re willing.”

  Kai nodded, swallowing hard against a lump in her throat. She closed her eyes, settling into him, and let herself drift.

  Unfortunately, drifting took her thoughts back to Morwenna. How she’d dragged Kai into the Council meeting and blown up everything Rhys had worked for. Ambushed her in the rotunda today of all days, trying to undermine her confidence. And then, like a circuit making a connection, Kai’s brain jumped to Jiang and her theory about the spy. I think it must be someone in the vee.

  Kai sat up.

  Rhys, who had apparently been sleeping, jerked awake and scanned the room. “What is it?”

  Kai took a breath. “I think...I think Morwenna is the spy. I think you should have Ashem investigate her. Whenever he’s up for an investigation.”

  Rhys’s face went from concerned to tired in the space of a breath. “I know you don’t like her, Kai, but she isn’t a spy.”

  “You just think that because she’s part of your vee,” Kai shot back. “Because you’ve been together for however many thousand years.”

  Rhys ran a hand through his hair. “She’s only been part of the vee since she heartswore to Iain.”

  Kai’s eyes widened. “How long ago was that?”

  He gave a resigned sigh. “Two hundred years.”

  “Then she really could be the spy! You have to tell Ashem—”

  “No.”

  She could tell he was trying to be gentle, but the word stung.

  He rubbed her back. “Kai, you’ve only known about dragons for two months. I’ve known Morwenna for two centuries. You don’t understand what you’re talking about. You’re...very young.”

  Ouch. She put her hand over his. “You don’t think your friendship or your...past...are making you biased?”

  Rhys shook his head.

  Kai closed her eyes and rested her forehead against his. “I think you have too much faith in people.”

  He chuckled and pulled them down. “I have to, cariad, or I’d end up paranoid and alone.”

  She brushed a kiss against his lips and they settled into silence. Rhys might trust Morwenna, but she didn’t. If Rhys had flaws, it was because he took his good parts too far. Protecting people. Trusting people.

  Ignoring the little voice that whispered she was the one with a bias, Kai decided that she’d find a way to check on Morwenna. Just to make sure.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Death Is Mercy

  Mountains rose before Cadoc and his companions in waves of white-frosted pine. He’d attempted conversation, but for once in his life, it didn’t come easily. He was too tense. Too much rode on this.

  If he survived today—if Mair could do what she thought she could and break the curse—he’d be able to go home.

  They flew over a low ridge and there, just as Izel had described, was a heart-shaped pond and an outcropping of rock that rose from a forested valley like a lone, gray tooth.

  For a second, Cadoc lost the rhythm of his flight. Ancients, what if he failed? What if Izel had lied to him?

  What if he was alone forever?

  Ophelia, whom Mair had assigned to be in charge of the rogues, gave the signal to land.

  He squashed his fears as they came to rest in a small clearing, changing to human so there would be enough room for all of them. Cadoc stood in the snow, trying to hide his shivering from the two women and Kephas—the Derkin male who had asked if he was the bard.

  Ophelia squinted in the direction of the stone outcropping as if she could see through the trees. “I don’t see signs of any spells yet. They must be closer in, next to the stone.”

  Cadoc scanned the sky. “Where are the guards?”

  Ophelia shrugged. “If they’d seen us, they would have attacked. The other pair stays next to the cache, so we haven’t crossed their line of sight. We’ll walk in as humans. Try to take the pair guarding the stone by surprise. If we can take care of them first, we’ll have an easier time taking out the other two.”

  They had landed as soon as they’d seen the stone, which put them about a mile out from the cache itself. After ten minutes of walking, Ophelia held up a hand. “The first layer of magic begins here,” she said. “Give me a minute to undo the spell.”

  The tall woman reached in front of her, her hand running through the air as if there were some kind of fine curtain. She made a complicated motion with her hands, then said a few words in ancient Greek.

  He leaned against a tree, tipping his head back as the spell breaking stretched on.

  Just s
tay calm. You’ve faced worse odds. And he had—with his friends, whose fighting styles he knew as well as his own. He tried to bury his nerves, to be grateful these dragons had volunteered instead of missing the familiar certainty of the vee.

  A noise like tearing fabric echoed through the trees. The air in front of Ophelia shimmered, covered by a fine, translucent veil. Then the shimmer faded. “That’s the first layer down. There’s another, right here.” Ophelia frowned, reaching forward. “I can’t—oh!”

  Fire exploded in front of her, creating a ten-foot-high wall of flame that ran away into the trees on either side, cutting them off from the cache. Someone screamed. Snow hissed. Fire caught in the dry pine needles beneath their feet.

  Cadoc shoved Ophelia behind him, thrust his hands toward the fire, gritted his teeth and pulled. It went well for about a minute, but the fire was larger than he’d realized. He groaned as the flames crawled inside him, swirling, hot and out of control. They spiraled up his arms and under his skin. Smoke billowed outward, the smell overpowering. Choking him. Beads of cold sweat ran down his body.

  “Cadoc?” One of the women, a half-Wonambi, half-Quetzal barely old enough to go to her first heartswearing, reached out to touch him.

  “Don’t!” he ground out.

  Another minute and the flames shrank, dwindling into nothing.

  Cadoc bent and rested his good hand on his knee, panting. Except for the hiss and pop of the few remaining embers, the smoke-shrouded winter woods were silent. Cadoc straightened and wiped soot from his forehead. “Well, they know we’re coming now.”

  “Good work.” Ophelia’s cheeks were smudged with ash, but she looked triumphant. “If you hadn’t stopped the fire...”

  Cadoc’s mouth twisted. “Not a chance, love. I’m too pretty to die.”

  Wind howled across the tops of the trees, whipping them back and forth. Ophelia swore. Cadoc craned his neck to see through the smoke and pine branches.

  Another burst of wind. A flash of emerald and rainbow feathers. Sunder it! Another Quetzal. Did the whole clan have some kind of vendetta against him?

  The Quetzal let out a shrieking roar. Another, more distant roar answered.

  Ophelia put a hand on Cadoc’s arm. “They haven’t spotted us in the smoke. Let’s take the other two out before they do.”

  They moved through the trees until they came within sight of the stone monolith. A dark-haired man stood on a jut of rock about ten feet up, scanning the trees. A woman prowled the ground below. Her pale skin marked her an Elemental, though Cadoc couldn’t make out the color of her indicium. The man looked like a Lung. Not good. Lung would sense the emotions of anyone in the group as soon as they got within a few dozen feet. Unfortunately, controlling his emotions had never been Cadoc’s strength.

  He looked to Ophelia and Kephas, both Derkin. Their clan was notorious for reliance on logic. “Can you get close?”

  Ophelia glanced at the other women. “Tharah?”

  The half-Wonambi woman considered. “I can cast an illusion, but it will be short range and I can’t mimic sounds or smells.”

  Cadoc shuddered, remembering Uwan, the Wonambi Izel had used in the pit, forcing him to cast the illusion that Cadoc’s father was the one slicing him to bits with obsidian knives.

  Ophelia watched the distant Lung with narrowed eyes, then glanced to Cadoc. “If we run into trouble, neutralize the Elemental first. Her powers are more of a threat.”

  Cadoc nodded. Not much of a plan, but better than nothing.

  Tharah took a breath, her face tensing with concentration. A second later, Ophelia and Kephas faded from sight.

  “I’ll hold the illusion as long as I can,” Tharah whispered.

  Footsteps shushed through pine needles, then, at the edge of the clearing, crunched into the ankle-deep snow.

  Cadoc and Tharah crouched, waiting. For a long moment, everything was silent. The Lung sat on his rock. The Elemental was out of sight on the other side.

  The man’s head snapped toward them. The earth shivered once, as if waking from a long sleep. Then it erupted, spewing dirt and rocks all over the clearing between Cadoc and the cache. One of the flying rocks caught Tharah on the side of the head, and she stumbled back. Fifteen feet from the standing stone, Ophelia and Kephas winked into sight.

  Cadoc threw himself into a staggering run as the ground rocked beneath him. That tells us what kind of Elemental we’re dealing with. He reached inside himself, rotating the waiting storm of fire.

  He had to get to the cache. He had to get the stone. And he couldn’t let anything happen to Ophelia and Kephas. They were there because of him. If they died, their blood was on his hands.

  Ahead, the two Derkin produced glowing blue spheres of light, flung them at the Lung and missed.

  The female Elemental came sprinting around the outcropping and caught sight of Cadoc. Loose stones rose into the air, circling her, then shot toward him like bullets. Cadoc dove to one side. Coming up on one knee, he blasted her with fire from his upraised palm. The other Elemental rolled, disappearing behind the massive stone that held the cache. The Lung leapt down after her, disappearing, as well.

  “Ophelia!” Cadoc gestured for her to go around the back while he came at the guards from the front.

  She nodded. They broke off, Cadoc circling the near side of the stone and Ophelia running in the opposite direction.

  The guards were waiting for them, standing back to back. But they weren’t fast enough. Ophelia hit the Lung square in the face with her ball of light, and he staggered. The female Elemental spun, but Ophelia hit her, as well. She stumbled away, precious moments spent blinking in the haze of forgetfulness the Derkin used as weapons.

  Leaping forward, Cadoc grabbed the slumping Lung and locked his bad arm around the man’s throat so that his good hand was free to press against the side of the man’s head. He poured heat into his palm, and the Lung squirmed.

  His mate recovered and ran at him, blond hair flying. “Don’t hurt him!”

  A shadow passed overhead. A bone spur smashed into the ground less than a foot from Cadoc. Above, the Quetzal swooped away. Ophelia shouted at the Tharah and Kephas to transform. They would need dragons to fight dragons.

  Get the charm. Break the curse. Go home.

  Sick at his actions, Cadoc pushed more heat into his fingers. The Lung man cried out, and Cadoc backed off a little. “Open the cache!” he shouted at the woman.

  Her lip curled, and she started to back away. The Lung man was now clawing at Cadoc’s arm, gouging bloody furrows in his skin.

  Cadoc applied more heat. “Come on! Who do you love more, Owain or your mate?”

  The woman hesitated.

  I’m so close, sunder you. Do it!

  “Open the cache!” His voice came out broken and desperate

  With a longing stare at her mate, the woman raised her hands. The earth rumbled. With a horrible grinding sound, a crack appeared in the stone outcropping, widening until it exposed a steep-sided hole.

  A hole. Ancients, of course the blood charm was down in a pit. Cadoc jerked his head at Ophelia. “Go. Please. It should be a red charm small enough to fit in your palm, or smaller.”

  Ophelia nodded and clambered up the unbroken side of the stone. A second later, she’d disappeared into the hole.

  The Quetzal zoomed by, swooping low, Kephas, now a dragon, snapping at its tail. A bone spur exploded into the snow. Before Cadoc could react, another impaled the Lung man in his grasp. Cadoc swore and dropped the man, who slumped to the ground. Dead.

  The Elemental woman screamed, a long, wordless wail of pain. The earth vibrated, a distant, roaring sound. Ophelia was still in the pit. It would collapse. She would be crushed.

  Cado walked up and slapped the Elemental just hard enough to stun her. She fell into the
snow, and the earthquake stopped.

  “Why did you do that?” Ophelia demanded, emerging from the pit. “Just kill her!” A black bag the size of a watermelon was slung over her shoulder.

  “No.” The woman had curled in on herself, her body racked with sobs. “There’s no reason.”

  Ophelia watched the woman with pity. “Sometimes death is mercy.”

  “Then she can make that decision herself. Where is it?”

  Ophelia jumped from the rock and held out her hand. Something red and delicate glimmered in her palm. “Here.”

  Cadoc snatched the object. It was small, no larger than a walnut. A spiky mass of shining, ruby red. He turned it over in his hands, rolling it between his fingers in wonder. This thing had taken him from home. Forced him to try to kill his best friend. Ripped his life to shreds.

  No longer.

  “Duck!”

  A shower of bone spikes exploded against the standing stone, splinters ricocheting. Cadoc stowed the blood charm in his pocket and grabbed Ophelia’s hand. “Thank you. Let’s get out of here.”

  They sprinted back the way they’d come and let go of each other’s hands. Running clear of each other, he and Ophelia both called the change. Cadoc leapt into the sky, flapping hard, putting everything he had into escape.

  But when he and Ophelia rose above the trees, only Kephas and Tharah waited for them.

  “They’ve gone,” Kephas called. “They spent all their bone spurs then ran.”

  “They aren’t Owain’s brightest fighters, are they?” Ophelia banked, heading west, for Mair’s house.

  Cadoc scanned the ground, but no attack was forthcoming. The remaining guards had fled.

  They had done it.

  He flew after Ophelia, warmth settling over him.

  He had the stone. Now all he had to do was break the curse.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  A Never-Ending Game

  Rhys woke, cradling Kai against him. The air outside of the bed wasn’t cold, but next to her was warm in a way that made him never want to leave. While his mind was more rested than it had been in months, his body...